Forum:CT:Dash use policy

This page is an archive of a community-wide discussion. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made in the Senate Hall or new Consensus Track pages rather than here so that this page is preserved as a historic record.
The result of the debate was no opposition, but not enough input for consensus. —Silly Dan _(talk) 20:57, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Draft

• Wookieepedia:Manual of Style/Proper use of the dash. I don't remember who originally wrote the draft, it was long ago when we didn't have the CT. I made a few modifications. - Sikon [Talk] 10:45, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

Vote

Support

1. Sikon [Talk] 10:45, 30 April 2006 (UTC)
2. --Xwing328^(Talk) 04:37, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

Oppose

Discussion

Eh...spaces around dashes — like this? I prefer no spaces—like this. -- Ozzel 22:23, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

• The original proposal had no spaces, but I think it looks horrible. - Sikon [Talk] 04:11, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
  • I have to disagree. It's the proper usage. From Wikipedia: "In North American usage—and also in old British usage—an em dash is never surrounded by spaces." -- Ozzel 04:21, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
    • North America isn't the entirety of the world. Besides, on Wikipedia itself, the space-surrounded version seems more common. - Sikon [Talk] 05:21, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
      • I think the space-surrounded version looks better, in general, with text formatted for a computer screen. For printed matter in a Times New Roman-esque font, it looks better to me without the spaces. —Silly Dan _(talk) 22:58, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

From the Wikipedia page on dashes (linked above):

• To write a number with a dash in it, use the figure dash (‒)
• For a closed range, use an en dash (–)
• For an open range, use an em dash (—)
• To make a compound adjective in which neither element modifies the other, use an en dash (–)
• For prefixing to a compound adjective that already has a hyphen (or a space) between elements, use an en dash (–)
• For parenthetical statements, use an em dash (—) with no surrounding space, or an en dash with surrounding space
• To introduce a quotation, use a quotation dash (―)
• To separate alternatives, use a swung dash (⁓)
• To replace a defined term in an example of usage within a definition, use a swung dash (⁓)

The above sounds pretty good to me. In particular, I like the idea of using en dashes surrounded by spacing for parenthetical dashes. RMF 20:56, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

• • Well, I think that's overly complicated, especially swung dashes. - Sikon [Talk] 18:59, 17 May 2006 (UTC)